Barbara Gordon (New Earth)
A few nights later, Barbara found an opportunity that would ultimately change her life forever. The Gotham City Police Department decided to host the Million Dollar Masquerade Ball at the Bristol Country Club. Dozens of Gotham City's most affluent leading citizens, including the likes of Bruce Wayne and J. Devlin Davenport, were expected to attend. Barbara sewed a stylish, feminine version of Batman's costume based upon designs that she first conceived as a child. For the most part, she intended on crashing the party as this "Batgirl" merely to spite her father. When she arrived however, she found that somebody else had decided to crash the party before her. A costumed criminal named Killer Moth and his cronies raided the country club, grabbing Bruce Wayne as a hostage. It was their intent to rob the charity proceeds as well as extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from Gotham's wealthiest patrons. Barbara now found herself acting as Batgirl in deed as well as in name. She tackled Killer Moth in the hopes of rescuing Bruce Wayne from his clutches. What she did not realize though, was that Bruce Wayne was actually Batman. He allowed Batgirl to "rescue" him so that he could sneak off to change into his "work" clothes. Returning to the scene with his sidekick, Robin, Batman discovered that Killer Moth had gotten the better of Batgirl. In order to free her from the morass of Killer Moth's silk-spinner gun, they were forced to let the criminals get away. Batman chided Batgirl harshly for her foolish antics, and warned her against pursuing such a reckless lifestyle. Hearing such criticism from a man she idolized for so long was a shock for Barbara, but it did not deter her from her chosen path. Despite his disapproval, he sent her Batarangs via Dick Grayson, who subtly revealed to her that he was Robin. Barbara was able to solve the case, and by of the story, Batman swore her in an oath and also revealed his identity. The Killing Joke As the years went on, however, Barbara found her role as Batgirl less and less fulfilling, and she eventually more or less retired. That is when the Joker showed up at her house, shooting and paralyzing her and when he kidnapped her Uncle Jim. Batman rescued Jim Gordon, but 19-year-old Barbara Gordon's career as a crime fighter was over. She spent a month in a deep depression. Oracle Recognizing she could no longer be the kind of superhero she had been, she instead devoted all her time to developing one of the world's most complex and powerful computer systems and set to work accumulating information, renaming herself "Oracle." Blessed with a photographic memory, Barbara read dozens of the world's top newspapers and magazines daily. She was also constantly gathering information from other, less public sources, such as the CIA mainframe, not to mention the data networks of the FBI, NSA and Interpol (all without their knowledge or consent). Oracle proved an absolutely invaluable resource to the Batman and his allies, as well as countless other superheroes, few of whom know anything about the person behind the name. Oracle was responsible for finding information about the Order of St. Dumas and shared it with Batman. Oracle formed an alliance with fellow heroes Black Canary and The Huntress to aid those in need. Together, they were the Birds of Prey, combining their unique abilities and skills in the war against crime and terror. Birds of Prey Barbara founds the Birds of Prey, a team of female heroes, whom she employs as agents. Her first agent is Power Girl. However, when an early case goes awry and several deaths result from it, Power Girl blames Barbara and stops working with Oracle on a regular basis (Although she helps Oracle occasionally, when Oracle invites Power Girl to rejoin the team after the events of Infinite Crisis, she replies that she will do so "when Hell freezes over"). Barbara joins forces with superhero Black Canary. The two – similar in both having lost their original abilities while fighting crime, yet managing to overcome their handicaps – would later meet in person and become best friends (Birds of Prey #29). The two form the nucleus of the Birds of Prey. The Huntress joins the team as a full-time agent, as does Lady Blackhawk. Although the personnel on Barbara's team grows and changes, Huntress and Lady Blackhawk remain core agents. During No Man's Land, Barbara employs various teenagers to be her eyes and ears on the street. One of these young agents is Cassandra Cain; she later saves Jim Gordon's life. Barbara realizes that Cassandra is actually one of the world's top martial artists; it is revealed that her father, David Cain, had trained her to be a weapon from infancy. Barbara accedes to Cassandra taking up the Batgirl mantle, and becomes Cassandra's mentor. War Games Some time later, when the gang war broke out in Gotham City, Batman starts using Oracle in a way that makes her feel like a "glorified operator" and at the same time, she breaks-up with Dick Grayson. Some days later, Batman takes over the airwaves on Gotham, including Oracle's main system and prevents her from access her own information. Though it was a temporary measure, Oracle is further upset with Batman for not sharing his plans with her. However, when Batman's "war games" plan was foiled by Black Mask, Oracle was fast to contact the members of the Bat-Family and sent them inside Robinson Park to help Batman. After this, Oracle supervised Robin's activities while he defeated the Ravens, Trickster and Mr. Fun. Under Batman's instructions, Oracle hacked into the surveillance cameras of Gotham in search of Spoiler and found her location. Later, Tarantula contacted Oracle asking for help and Oracle reported the current situation to Batman. Oracle sent Batgirl to aid Onyx and a few minutes later, she realized that Black Mask has been gathering all the criminals in Gotham and leading them towards the Gotham Clock Tower; her home and secret headquarters. As the criminals stormed the tower, Oracle prepared a series of traps that stalled them while she tried to call for backup. Black Mask managed to overload the system, taking the power down and found Oracle in the main chamber. Batman arrived at the Clock Tower just in time to prevent Black Mask from hurting Barbara and then, both men started a brutal fight to death. Barbara couldn't stop them by talking and she activated a self destruction mechanism that would destroy the entire place, killing her as well. Batman was forced to stop fighting to save Barbara just as the building collapsed. Barbara was outside and she was carried by the reporter Arturo Rodriguez to a safe place. The Watchtower, secret headquarters of Oracle and Barbara's home was utterly destroyed. After these events, Barbara decided that it was time for her to move away from Gotham, and she departed informing Batman of her decision. Metropolis Having left Gotham, and after a temporary world trip with her team, Barbara relocates to Metropolis. After becoming herself infected with an advanced virus delivered by Brainiac, Barbara develops cyberpathic powers that allow her to psychically interact with computer information systems. Although she loses these abilities after the virus is rendered dormant, following an operation by Doctor Mid-Nite she discovers she can move her toes. However, this proves to be a short-lived effect, and Barbara remains paralyzed. Although Barbara and Dick Grayson (the superhero now code-named Nightwing) re-ignite their romance, Barbara ends the relationship when she feels Dick is being over-protective of her. In truth, the villain Blockbuster is attacking all areas of Dick's life. Barbara and Dick still love each other and remain in each others lives; after the destruction of Blüdhaven by The Society, Dick proposes and Barbara accepts. However, their romance is cut short by the Infinite Crisis storyline. Alexander Luthor's master plan to recreate the multiverse relies upon diverting the attention of the world's heroes. Dick is severely injured in the battle for Metropolis, and Barbara stays by his side as he recovers. When Batman asks Dick to join him on his quest to recreate Batman, Dick is torn because of his engagement to Barbara. Barbara returns the engagement ring because she feels that Dick needs a soul-searching quest as much as his mentor, and understands that she and Dick are not ready for marriage. Dick goes with Batman, but leaves Barbara a note, the ring, and a photograph of them as Robin and Batgirl, promising to come back to her. One Year Later Oracle and her team were still working in Metropolis and Barbara started working with Batman, although not on a regular basis as before; as she prefered to work primarily with her own agents. Oracle is not immediately aware of Cassandra's retirement as Batgirl, nor her subsequent take-over of the League of Assassins (Cassandra becomes a sore point with Oracle: she slaps Misfit, a metahuman girl pretending to be Batgirl, for merely mentioning Cassandra's name). Barbara continues to lead the Birds of Prey, and expanded the ranks of the operation. Black Canary leaves the team, having decided to devote herself to raising her adopted daughter, Sin. Huntress remains as the de facto field leader for the team, and Big Barda has been brought in as the group's heavy-hitter alongside a larger, rotating roster. Oracle and her team struggle for power with Spy Smasher, a government agent who has taken over the Birds of Prey organization. After the completion of a mission in Russia in which the team rescues the resurrected Ice, Barbara challenges Spy Smasher to a hand-to-hand fight: the winner takes the Birds of Prey. Although Barbara wins the fight, Spy Smasher reneges on the deal. Every agent Oracle has ever employed, male and female, appears to provide support. Black Canary leads the group and, deploying reason and threats, convinces Spy Smasher that the Birds of Prey cannot exist without Oracle in charge. Spy Smasher is forced to admit her defeat. At the end of the issue, Barbara finds Misfit, discovers she is an orphan, and adopts her into the Birds of Prey. In Countdown, Barbara dispatches the Question and Batwoman to capture Trickster and Piper following their role in the murder of the Flash. She struggles to keep the identities of the world's heroes from being stolen and coordinates the response to a global crisis engineered by the Calculator, a villainous hacker and information broker. At the same time, the Legion of Super-Heroes members Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl storm her headquarters, demanding her assistance. Unfortunately, Oracle was busy trying to keep Calculator from hacking her system, and so she attempted ot send them away. After defeating the lesser computer hacker, Oracle runs a series of test on Karate Kid and discovers that he is dying of some unknown illness, and she then sends him out to locate someone who might be able to help him. Later, after discovering that Green Arrow has proposed to Black Canary, Oracle tries to talk Dinah out of the marriage, reminding her of all the times that Oliver cheated and hurt her. In the end however Dinah states that her love for Oliver is too deep to just give up. Dinah then asks Oracle to be her maid of honor at the wedding, which Oracle agrees to do. Oracle was contacted by Catwoman, who asked her for all the information available on Thomas Elliot's bank accounts and Oracle provided the information with no hesitation. Final Crisis and Battle for the Cowl When Darkseid gained control of the Anti-Life Equation, he attempts to put the mind-control equation on the Internet. Both Oracle and Mister Terrific make desperate attempts to stop Darkseid, even attempting to shut down the entire Internet. Unfortunately, they both fail and those affected ended up mindless slaves of Darkseid. Freed from Darkseid control after the restoration of the Multiverse, she attempts to shut down the criminal "Unternet" set up by her opposite number, the Calculator, as a Darkseid-free replacement for the regular Internet and still used by tech-savvy criminals. However, the Calculator, preventing her moves, takes control of the Maxwell Lord, gaining the ability to thrive in cyberspace by controlling digital and cybernetic avatars, and tracks Oracle down with his newfound powers. Even though Oracle foils him, she starts doubting her abilities and fears she is losing her edge and brilliance, which results in her disbanding the Birds of Prey team to do some soul-searching. After Bruce Wayne's apparent death, Barbara learned of Nightwing's hardships and visited him at his base on New York City, where she managed to break into his base and then she upgraded his security systems as a favor to him. Some time later, on her birthday, Dick took Barbara on a plane ride and then they skydived, all of which was Dick's birthday gift for Barbara. When Nightwing returned to Gotham, he summoned a group of heroes that would team up to mantain order in the city. Oracle returned to Gotham and resumed her position as main informant for the Bat-Family and her first act was the summoning of the Outsiders to Gotham. Later, she reported Arkham Asylum's destruction to Nightwing and also about a mysterious assassin whose M.O. resembled to that of Azrael. Oracle's surveillance system spotted this new Azrael and also a new vigilante acting as Batman. Later, she was able to locate Damian, allowing Nightwing to go the kid's location. Having settled in a low-rent apartment, Barbara started searching for the fragments of the Anti-Life Equation and discovered that The Calculator was collecting them, hoping to save his dying daughter Wendy with it. Later, Oracle organized a plan of action when she uncovered a gambling rake by Hugo Strange, which she disabled with help from Batgirl, Huntress, Manhunter, Misfit and Ragman. Hoping to stop the Calculator from getting the Anti-Life Equation, Oracle travelled to Hong Kong to steal Calculator's data by the means of an advanced supercomputer, but after getting the data, Calculator tracked her signal and almost destroyed her. Oracle returned to Gotham, where she managed to defeat Calculator, curing the Anti-Life Equation's fragments and she vowed to help Wendy, who had become paralyzed, just like Barbara. Batgirl Rising Working with Leslie Thompkins, Barbara has begun to mentor the Calculator's daughter, Wendy, who was crippled following an attack at the Titans Tower, which took the life of her brother Marvin. Recently it came to Barbara's attention (thanks to Dick Grayson) that Cassandra Cain has once again stepped down from the role of Batgirl, and has been replaced by Stephanie Brown. Still seeing Stephanie as an impulsive young girl, Barbara tries to talk her out of being Batgirl. When a new recreational drug known as "Thrill" is hitting the streets of Gotham, Barbara and Stephanie work together to stop the drug trade which they discovers to be run by Scarecrow and Black Mask. After Stephanie defeated Scarecrow and proved her worth and maturity, Barbara gives Stephanie an unused Batgirl costume that was supposedly designed for Barbara. Barbara also takes a job as an assistant professor at Gotham University. Blackest Night During Blackest Night, Green Lantern crashes into the Batsignal after a fight with the Black Lantern Martian Manhunter. Barbara and Commissioner Gordon are both present. Origins & Omens hints towards an involvement in the storyline. After sending Green Lantern's intel to every superhero community across the planet of the Black Lanterns, the Gordons find themselves being attacked by the original Dark Knight's deceased rogue gallery members, whom are all reanimated by the Black Lantern Corps, Barbara and her father are forced to fight for their lives as they witnessing the Black Lanterns are massacring everyone on sight at Gotham Central. During the crisis, Barbara is being possessed by Deadman, channeling Barbara's athletic capability to save Commissioner Gordon from the reanimated King Snake and the Trigger Twins. After being rescued by Batman, Robin, and Red Robin, the Gordons are later being attacked by Batman and Red Robin's parents with their saviors, the reanimated Graysons and the Drakes. While Grayson and Drake battling the Black Lanterns, Robin takes the Gordons to their underground base where Alfred tending her and her father's wounds. Return of Bruce Wayne Some time later, a new vigilante appeared in Gotham and Oracle learned of the Insider when Batgirl confronted him stealing from WayneTech. Oracle tried to prevent further encounters against him and shorly after this, Barbara was interrogated about Batman by Vicki Vale, who had somehow managed to discover their secret identities. Barbara avoided giving Vale a straight answer and a few days later she was contacted by Insider, who informed Oracle that many criminals were on the lookout for Vale and her information. Oracle helped Insider rescue Vale from an attack by Penguin's mercenaries and later she discovered that the criminal who was behind Vale was Ra's al Ghul. Oracle organized a few members of the Bat-Family to protect Vicki from the incoming threat of the Seven Men of Death and during the battle, she deduced that Insider was in fact Bruce Wayne, who had somehow returned from the death. The Black Mirror James Gordon, Jr. returns to Gotham after many years and Barbara tells her father not to trust him because he is a psychopath. During this time she also helps Grayson take down a new super-villain called the Dealer. It is explained that she first started distrusting her brother when he was implicated in the murder of her friend as a child. They investigate the medicine James Jr. is using to reduce his psychopathic tendencies, and discover that he has reversed it to increase them. Commissioner Gordon deduces that his son is using connections with Leslie Thompkins to poison an infant nutrition plant and turn babies into psychopaths. When her step-mother Barbara is attacked with toxin, Batman and the Commissioner go after Joker while James Jr. kidnaps Oracle. James Jr. tries to murder her in a secluded place, but Batman and the Commissioner stop him in time after Barbara stabs him non-fatally through the eye. It is left unclear whether or not they really stopped his plans, although it is implied that they might not have. | Powers = | Abilities = * : As Oracle, Barbara is an expert computer hacker. With her computer hacking skills, she is able to breach the highest security systems. Her skills are rivaled by none. * : Barbara is extremely proficient with computers. She is by far the most computer literate of the Bat-family, and one of the most efficient user of computers world-wide. * : Barbara is shown to have a naturally high intelligence. * : Trained by Batman himself, Barbara is on a team of the world's greatest detectives. * : Barbara is a trained martial artist. She was trained by Kung Fu master Richard Dragon who helped Barbara hone her martial prowess during a time when he too was using a wheelchair. ** ** ** ** * * * : Barbara took a correspondence course in law obtaining a Juris Doctor degree which allowed her to sit for a state's bar exam, leading to a license to practice law. After getting the basic degree, she took an extension course in Harvard University, earning a Master Degree of Laws. | Strength = | Weaknesses = * : Barbara Gordon was paralyzed from the waist down, and used a wheelchair, after being shot by the Joker. | Equipment = * Utility Belt: As Batgirl, her equipment included Batarangs, smoke bombs, a grappling hook, and some other gadgets. * Cowl Lenses: As Batgirl, Barbara could press a button on her cowl which put various lenses over her eyes. She had a clear lens, a telescopic-vision lens, a microscopic-vision lens, a thermal lens, and a multi-light tracer lens. The multi-light tracer device had eventually replaced her Batcycle's function. | Transportation = * Batcycle: As Batgirl, Barbara Gordon rides a specially modified motorcycle, with a built-in crime-detection lab. | Weapons = | Notes = | Trivia = * There have been numerous attempts to fix Oracle's legs so she can walk again. Simon LaGrieve once mentioned that they couldn't use the brace used by Ravan because part of her spine is missing and there's been extensive neurological damage. * It has been mentioned that Barbara Gordon could no longer have children after becoming paraplegic. * In , Barbara says that she was 18 years old when she was Batgirl. * While she was infected with the Brainiac virus she had cyberpathic powers and could psychically interact with computer systems. | Recommended = * * Batgirl: Year One * * * | DC = batgirl | Wikipedia = Barbara Gordon | Links = }} Category:Batgirl Category:Women in Refrigerators Syndrome Category:Former Justice League of America members Category:Dick Grayson's Love Interests Category:Adventurers Category:Librarians